


clip your wings so we can fly

by ORiley42



Category: Mission: Impossible (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Ethan is a Cupid, Fluff, M/M, True Love, background Ilsa/Jane, the (brief) return of Maggie Dunn! lover of himbos, with like...Roy Miller manic energy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25861744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ORiley42/pseuds/ORiley42
Summary: Ethan is a cupid sent to help Benji find true love....
Relationships: Benji Dunn/Ethan Hunt
Comments: 18
Kudos: 44
Collections: Benthan Week 2020





	clip your wings so we can fly

**Author's Note:**

> Benthan Week Day 3, alternate theme: Fantasy AU.
> 
> Concept for this fic inspired by ChuckleVoodoos’ absolutely adorable Daredevil story [Stupid Cupid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4157112).

“Sorry, I think you’ve, uh, mistaken me for someone else,” Benji said politely—and a little sadly—when an absolutely gorgeous man sat down at his favorite outdoor café table and smiled at him.

It should be noted at this point that said gorgeous man was quite shirtless. An unusual choice in September, though maybe he just felt like showing off. Benji couldn’t blame him.

“Nope, I’ve definitely got the right person, Benji,” the seriously-odd-but-hot-enough-to-make-that-seem-irrelevant newcomer beamed again.

“Hrmmph,” Benji tried to reply, but found words a little difficult with all the gleaming pectorals and brilliant teeth and soulful eyes suddenly in his immediate vicinity. He tried again. “Um, how do you know my name? And, while we’re at it, what’s yours?”

“I’m Ethan. And I know your name because, well…” Ethan pointed a finger up at the clouds and winked. This was not at all helpful, as explanations went.

“Er…I feel I’m missing something. Is this…is this some sort of practical joke? Did Jane put you up to this?” Benji wouldn’t put it past his best friend to pull a stunt like this.

“This isn’t a joke,” Ethan promised, “I’m here to see you. Because I’m your cupid, sent from on-high to help you find your soulmate!”

Benji waited for the punchline. When it didn’t come, he just hailed a passing waiter, saying, “Hi, could I get another coffee, and something for my, uh, friend here?” He gestured at Ethan, who bit his lip like he was trying not to laugh. The waiter looked at Benji, then looked at where Ethan was sitting, then back to Benji. “Um…so…two coffees? For you?”

“For… _us_ ,” Benji clarified, once again gesturing to Ethan, who—talk about unmissable.

“…okay,” the waiter agreed cautiously, before bolting. Benji watched him go, flummoxed.

Ethan sort of giggled, except whatever the manly and attractive version of giggling was. “Sorry, Benji, I’m invisible as long as I want to be.”

“You—what? No, you’re not,” Benji declared. He was quite firm in the belief that people could not be invisible, even strange, shirtless, hot strangers who think they’re fictional creatures.

“I am, though,” Ethan pressed, and Benji felt a headache coming on.

“Two coffees,” the waiter announced, sliding two saucers onto the table in front of Benji. “Will your friend want anything else when they get here?” he asked.

“No, that’s…” Benji pointed at Ethan, “he’s _already_ here. Obviously.”

Ethan leaned forward, counseling Benji, “Hey, don’t rake this poor guy over the coals just because he’s not a medium! Only a fraction of the population can spot my kind when we don’t want to be seen.”

The waiter’s eyes moved once more over Ethan, like he wasn’t there. But he _was_ there! “You know, dude, don’t worry about it, you do you,” the guy finally assured Benji before fleeing.

“Right,” Benji announced loudly, half-rising from the table in his panic, “Can anyone see this hot shirtless man talking nonsense to me?”

The café’s other patrons could not, apparently, see Benji’s half-nude apparition, if their thoroughly baffled and slightly alarmed expressions were anything to judge by.

“Ha, never mind,” Benji waved his hand and scrounged up a strained smile, which allayed some of the nearby customer’s concerns. One elderly woman sipping tea two seats over kept a sharp eye on him, however, and Benji decided that perhaps this conversation should move to an alternate location. Perhaps a padded cell.

“Gotta go home,” he said partially to himself and partially to the maybe-real-maybe-not-Ethan, “Gotta…get out of the sun, or something. Maybe this is heatstroke? That can cause hallucinations, right?” It was a temperate 62°F, so that seemed unlikely, but even more unlikely was that a sexy invisible cupid had just popped down from the clouds to fix his nonexistent love-life.

“I think it can,” Ethan mused, falling into step beside Benji, “but I really don’t think you need to worry about heatstroke on a day like this. Unless you’re feverish?” He put a hand on Benji’s forehead to take his temperature and Benji squeaked like a cat whose tail had just been run over. That was definitely a _real_ hand.

“No, _no_!” Benji shouted, though it wasn’t clear what exactly he was saying ‘no’ to—just Ethan’s general existence perhaps.

Ethan pouted and gave Benji about two inches more personal space. “I’m just here to help. Really.”

“La la la, I can’t hear you,” Benji talked over Ethan’s gentle protests, “because I have a very firm rule to not converse with hallucinations. Especially not… _god_ , ones without _pants_!” Benji started staring pointedly up at the sky to avoid looking at whatever minimal white underwear/diaper/celestial drapery situation he’d glimpsed happening around Ethan’s nether regions.

“Right. Human fashion. So difficult to keep up with.” Ethan scanned the passersby for a moment, before snapping his fingers. A pair of jeans and a charcoal Henley—exactly like those worn by a man currently crossing the street—materialized to cover his form.

Benji jumped. That was…that was magic. Like, straight up Harry-Potter-wands-and-frog-princes _magic_.

“Oh, shit,” he breathed, “you’re really…real.”

“Yeah,” Ethan nodded kindly, “sorry if I startled you. I’ve been riding the pine for a while, so I’m out of practice with fieldwork.”

“Uh, it’s fine,” Benji replied automatically.

“Oh, good!”

They started walking again, Benji a bit like a zombie and Ethan like the world’s friendliest supermodel.

“So…you said you were a cupid?” Benji finally followed up when he’d processed at least some of what was happening.

“Yep! Technically, a cherub first-class, but I don’t like to pull rank,” Ethan shrugged.

“Right. And you. You’re here to, uh…”

“Find you your true love!” Ethan said it again, and it sounded even more ridiculous this time. Benji was a bit of a romantic, but this was preposterous.

“Ok, and how exactly are you going to do that?” he asked, setting aside for the moment the cosmic consequences of cupids being an _actual thing_ to focus on the practicalities of his current pickle.

“Well…I’ll look for them! And find them,” Ethan answered confidently.

“No offense, mate, but that’s not exactly a foolproof plan.”

“Love doesn’t need a plan, it just needs love!”

“Oh, boy,” Benji sighed, “this isn’t gonna end well.”

“Of course not, silly, it’s going to end _great_ ,” Ethan enthused before skipping away, distracted by a flower cart bursting with daisies.

Benji took the opportunity to redouble his step. His apartment wasn’t far, and if he could reach his roommate—one of the most rational people he’d ever known—then surely this could all be sorted out.

He dashed through his building’s shabby lobby and up the stairs to the third floor. Ethan was nowhere in sight. Maybe he’d lost him?

Benji was puffing hard by the time he managed to get the key in the lock and push his way into the apartment. He slammed the door shut and put the chain across before leaning back against it and trying to catch his breath.

“Uh, hi…” Jane stuck her head out of the kitchen, “are you…alright?”

“Not really, I’m being followed,” Benji said in a rush.

“Like, stalked?” One of the knives from the butcher’s block was in Jane’s hand in a flash.

“No! I mean, maybe, but I don’t think he means any harm.”

“Hmm,” Jane glared out the window suspiciously, but put the knife down. “Tell me what happened.”

“Um…” Benji started edging towards the couch, wringing his hands, “so, I was at the café…”

“Right.”

“And this guy sat down at my table…”

“Ok.”

“And he was shirtless…”

“…”

“And then he said he was a cupid sent from heaven or something to find me love,” Benji finished with a wince.

Jane chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment before bursting into raucous laughter. She had to grab the arm of the couch to keep from falling over.

“Ugh,” Benji grabbed the fluffiest pillow at hand and smashed his face into it.

Jane was still laughing when he emerged.

“Could you please take this seriously?” Benji begged.

“Benji, babe, you’re talking about cupids, and it’s not even Valentine’s Day. Obviously, I’m not going to take this seriously.”

“An actual, magical, supernatural creature is…is hunting me for sport, or something!”

“Or a weird dude hit on you in a café,” Jane offered the alternative.

“He’s Cupid!” Benji insisted, “Or _a_ cupid, it sounded like it was more of a title than, uh, a _species_ …”

“If he’s Cupid then did he, uh…” Jane waggled her eyebrows suggestively, “prick you with his arrow yet?”

“ _Ugh_ …” Benji buried his face in the pillow again while Jane laughed.

“Ah, cheer up, sport,” she thwacked his back companionably, “if you’re gonna get haunted by a pretend magical creature, at least it’s a nice one.”

That did actually comfort Benji a bit. There were a lot worse things—ghosts, ghouls, mummies, vampires, you name it—that could’ve crawled out of the ‘not actually fictional’ woodwork.

The apartment door flew open with a bang, revealing Ethan in all his potentially-celestial glory as he waved goodbye to someone out of sight. “Lovely to meet you, Mrs. Morrison!”

Oh hell, Benji winced, didn’t I lock the door? Oh, yep, there was the chain dangling merrily, ripped from the wall. Great.

Then, Benji was pulled from his reverie as he realized that not only had Ethan just _broken into his home_ , he was talking to someone. Another person! And Jane was looking at him, right now, like she could see him!

“Is that…” she started to ask.

“That’s him!” Benji exclaimed, almost hysterical with relief, “My cupid or ghost or whatever! You can see him?”

“I sure can,” Jane confirmed.

“Thank god, he’s _real_.”

Jane agreed, “That is a Real Actual Man.”

Ethan smiled at her as he bounded inside like an overexcited puppy, flopping down on the couch just a little closer to Benji than was strictly appropriate for new acquaintances. “Gee, there are lots of great folks around here for you, Benji,” he announced, “this is gonna go so well. Oh, though I don’t mean you,” he waved at Jane, “but not in a bad way! Just because of the whole—”

“—lesbian thing, yes,” Jane nodded, like she wasn’t calmly conversing with a non-human creature in the midst of breaking and entering.

“Yeah,” Ethan grinned, “though I do have a lady in mind who you might like.” He shot her a wink.

“Right,” Jane gave him a measured look, “But first, you’ve gotta fix the door you just broke.”

“Oh, sure! I can do that. I’m very handy,” Ethan announced proudly. “And I’ll be sure to teleport in here in the future—I was just so excited, I forgot the material world is so breakable.”

Jane nodded, like the matter was settled. “Ok. He’s weird, but he can stay.”

“Yay!” Ethan threw a companionable arm around Benji’s shoulders. He smelled like sunshine.

“That’s—you don’t…oh, never mind,” Benji sighed.

And…he did stay. Sort of. Ethan didn’t seem to sleep or eat like a human, which made sense, as he wasn’t one. But he just sort of materialized around the house whenever Benji was least expecting it—next to his bed .04 seconds after he woke up, behind him in the kitchen when he was trying to flip an omelet, once just outside the shower when Benji was shampooing his hair. Benji had screamed like he was reenacting _Psycho (1960)_ and Jane had burst in wielding a spatula to protect him and it had been a rather trying time for all three of them.

Sometimes Ethan was only visible to Benji, sometimes to everyone. Although Benji at first had resented the former, he started to prefer it after only a few days of Ethan’s unpredictable company. Because…Ethan was nice. So nice. Everyone liked him. And it made Benji jealous—Ethan was this magnificent thing sent specifically to help _him_ , and he found he didn’t like the idea of having to share him.

Yet, several weeks into their friendship and Benji was as vibrantly single as ever. Not a date on the horizon. Benji had inquired into whether or not there was a cupid “process,” and Ethan had just solemnly handed him a lacey paper cut-out heart. This was not an answer to his question, but he’d stuck the heart on the fridge with a magnet and smiled fondly at it every morning.

Benji would’ve thought Ethan was just terrible at his job, except, he found Jane a girlfriend inside 24 hours. Ethan recommended a particularly exclusive night club to her the night they met, and before the sun rose, there was a sock on her door and Benji was getting his money’s worth out of his noise-cancelling headphones.

The next morning, a striking woman with eyes like the ocean and a soft European tinge to her voice was chowing down on bacon in the kitchen. Much like Ethan, Ilsa became a regular feature in the apartment, also like Ethan, Benji suspected she was capable of great and terrifying things.

Ed, a run-down thirty-something who ran the corner grocery shop, was next. One second, Ethan was reading the ingredients list on a box of Pop-Tarts and asking Benji what “blue 1” and “red 40” tasted like, and the next, he was over by the check-out smiling his golden-glow smile at Ed and a frizzy-haired brunette Benji had never seen before.

Ed barely even noticed Benji or Ethan as he scanned their groceries and handed them a receipt, too busy sharing sappy smiles with his new paramour.

Ethan was buoyant as they left the shop. He elbowed Benji, grinning, “If I were a gambling man…I’d guess there’ll be a wedding announcement within the year.”

“Hey, I’ll take your word for it,” Benji held up his hands, “I know not to bet against the house.”

Ethan’s smile froze. “But…but you know it’s not _rigged_ , right? I’m not cheating. I’m just helping people…”

“No, I know, man, it’s cool,” Benji assured him.

“Good.” Ethan didn’t look very relieved. “Because it’s important you know I’m not…not _doing_ anything to you, or to anyone. Just making sure they find their perfect person. And I’m going to help you find your perfect person because you deserve it, Benji, you deserve it _so much_.”

“Oh.” Benji’s jaw metaphorically hit the pavement, almost followed by the rest of him as he tripped over the same crack in the sidewalk he always tripped over. Ethan caught him, as had become his routine too.

“Thanks,” Benji patted Ethan’s arm and let him take the groceries off his hands so he could regain his balance. “And, um, that’s great. But. Honestly, an afternoon watching Jeopardy and eating toaster strudel on the couch with you is all I really want.”

Wow. Benji wondered if Ethan’s smile was actually luminescent, or if Benji’d just fallen so head over heels that it seemed like the sun blinked on and off at Ethan’s bequest.

“I think that sounds like a _perfect_ afternoon,” Ethan agreed, looping their arms together as they headed home.

“Nightmare child’s here!” Jane announced once they walked into the apartment.

“Maggie!” Benji cheered even before he spotted his younger sister.

Jane and Maggie actually got along famously, but they both found it much funnier to rile the other up than play nice.

Maggie slid on sock-feet out of the kitchen, holding a spoonful of peanut butter aloft. “Hey! Is that him?” She pointed the spoon at Ethan.

“I’m me,” Ethan said happily.

“Uh, yes, this is him,” Benji winced, “if by _him_ you mean my friend Ethan.”

Benji had given up trying to convince anyone of Ethan’s supernatural abilities. Jane half-believed him, mainly just because no genuine human had ever been able to sneak up on her the way Ethan could. But other than that, Benji had just accepted that he had now had a permanent, friendly, handsome shadow. In fact, he’d gotten so used to—or fond of, really—Ethan’s presence that he’d started to just categorize him under “friend.” “Best friend,” even. Huh, he thought to himself, didn’t realize my wacky semi-angelic pal had been upgraded so quickly in the internal-adoration hierarchy. Better watch that, before it got out of hand.

So, when he’d told Maggie over the phone about his new acquaintance, he’d avoided such phrases as “invisible” and “teleport” and “soulmates.”

“Hmm…” Maggie skated forward to glare Ethan down at close range. Ethan’s beatific smile didn’t even flicker. “Alright.” She handed him the jar of peanut butter she’d apparently been hiding behind her back like a trophy. “You seem cool.”

Ethan took the peanut butter with a thoughtful nod. “You as well.” His expression took on the calculating note Benji had come to realize was Cupid Power Activation™.

“How do you feel about jazz?” Ethan asked her very seriously, “Trumpets? Specifically, jazz trumpet?”

Maggie pondered for a moment. “I don’t think I have particular feelings about brass instruments of any genre.”

Ethan smiled, brilliant and just a little mischievous. “I think you will.”

She did.

James played jazz trumpet. He also gave his talents for free to several local retirement communities on the weekend. Maggie just happened to volunteer at one of these communities herself, and through machinations known only to Ethan and whatever powers he reported to, they met and feel deeply and immediately in puppy love.

“He’s not a gambler, serial adulterer, or ex-car-jacking-ring kingpin,” Maggie counted off on her fingers to Benji a few weeks later, “He doesn’t leave the toilet seat up, try to steal nan’s jewelry to pay off online poker debts, or shout obscenities at squirrels he spots running up trees out the window.”

“My god you have dated some absolute dogs,” Benji cut in.

“Hell yes, and I don’t even think I ever told you about Brad.”

“Brad?!”

“But it doesn’t matter anymore! Because James is perfect. Six foot, broad shoulders, IQ of a lawn chair. He always smiles at me, always holds open the door, and uses what little brain power he has to do nice things for me. I know I’ve said this with confidence before, but for real this time: he is _the One_.”

“I’m so happy for you, Mags,” Benji wrapped his sister up in a hug.

“Aw, thank you,” she squeezed him back before hopping away, “I’ve gotta run, James needs a ride home from rehearsal. He sort of totaled his car the other day trying not to run over a chipmunk.”

“He’s…really dumb,” Benji noted, fond.

“ _So_ dumb,” Maggie agreed dreamily.

Jane arrived just as Maggie left, involving a complicated handshake/arm-wrestling tournament at the door before they both went their separate ways.

“She seems like she’s in a good mood,” Jane noted, “you don’t.”

“Maggie’s got a boyfriend,” Benji explained, “An actually decent one, from the sound of it. Courtesy of Ethan, of course.”

“So…naturally you’ve thrown yourself on the couch like a Victorian damsel who flounced a little too vigorously in her corset.”

“Meh. I’m just. Jealous, I suppose.”

“Bad look on you.”

“I know.”

“Why don’t you talk to Ethan about it?” Jane looked around for their resident cherub, but he was off doing whatever he did when he wasn’t watching dogs in the park or making grilled cheeses or debating which summer Olympic event would be most entertaining to watch take place on ice—when he wasn’t with Benji.

“Because _he’s_ the real problem,” Benji reluctantly explained.

“Oh…” Jane lifted Benji’s feet off the couch and sat down, letting them drop back in her lap. “That’s what this is about.”

“Yeah.”

“Listen, Ethan’s definitely a weird one.” Jane gave Benji’s knee a sort of maternal squeeze, “But a good one. I’d hold onto him if I were you.”

“He’s not mine to hold on to,” Benji countered, miserable.

Jane scoffed, parental demeanor abandoned, “Horseshit. That boy’s as gone on you as I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re pulling my leg.” He wiggled his legs for emphasis.

“Like I’d waste my time doing that! Seriously, pull your head out of your ass and smell the roses.”

“That is _not_ how that saying goes.”

“Whatever. I’ve watched you two moon over each other for long enough to know what’s up.”

“Try telling him that,” Benji groused, “whenever I think we might be having a moment, he goes all professional and says that he’s got ‘prospects’ for me.”

“Oh, yeah? Where the hell are these prospects then?”

“He says he’s still vetting them.”

Jane fixed Benji with her most implacable stare. “And you buy that? C’mon.”

“What’s there to buy?” Benji asked, genuinely confused.

“I give up,” Jane flung Benji’s feet to the ground and stood up, “there’s a reason I don’t deal with men. Maybe I could ask Ilsa to set you straight—metaphorically, that is.”

“What’s Ilsa going to do?” Ethan asked, materializing in the place on the couch Jane had just vacated.

“Um…scuba dive!” Benji lied in a panic.

“Oh, cool. I talked to a whale once,” Ethan shared, “Super chatty. Not great at dice games, though.”

“That’s ridiculous, please tell me everything,” Benji asked. Jane rolled her eyes at him over Ethan’s shoulder, but let it slide—for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, understanding struck Benji like a badminton ball swatted directly into his face. After a few minutes of pacing, trying to order his thoughts, he gave it up as a bad job and left the sanctuary of his room to find and confront Ethan.

“Look, Benji, I made pancakes!” Ethan shouted as soon as Benji stepped into the hall, “And I didn’t set off the fire alarm this time!”

“That’s great,” Benji said, a little shaky as he went into the kitchen.

“And they have smiley faces,” Ethan held out one of the plates with pride.

Benji looked down at the chocolate-chip-and-banana faces and could’ve cried.

“You don’t like them?” Ethan asked, completely misunderstanding Benji’s crumpling expression, “Because I can try again, maybe use cranberries instead—”

“No, no, Ethan, they’re adorable. Perfect, even. But I want to talk to you about something important.”

“Oh.” Ethan looked like he wanted to hide behind the pancakes, but he carefully set them aside at Benji’s urging.

“Listen. There’s no easy way to say it, so I’ll just cut to the point. You’ve successfully found a special someone for my best friend, my sister, and the local grocer…but not for me.”

Ethan shuffled his feet uncomfortably, “I can explain—”

“Let me finish,” Benji cut in. “So, at first, I thought this meant I was unloveable.”

“ _No_ , that’s not—!” Ethan immediately tried to deny it, and Benji held up a hand to shush him again.

“Yes, and then I put all those years of therapy to good use and reminded myself that I’m as loveable as can be,” Benji clarified, hoping to soften the absolutely tragic look at Ethan’s face, “Which left me with what appeared to be the only other alternative: that you are just _terrible_ at your job.”

Ethan’s silence was stubborn. And telling.

“But see, that doesn’t actually make sense either. You’re clearly fantastic at matchmaking, illustrated by your many resounding successes. So, I did a little more thinking and began to realize that there was a third, as yet unrealized explanation for my singlehood and your apparent failure: that you were _trying_ to fail.”

Ethan’s silence was downright mutinous now, but Benji barreled on.

“You didn’t want me to find my match because…” Benji’s breath escaped him and it took a moment to lasso it back into his chest, to get enough air to speak aloud the conclusion he’d barely begun to believe himself, “because you wanted to keep me for yourself.”

He waited for the bomb to drop. Benji truly understood the expression ‘bated breath’ for the first time, because he did not feel a single molecule of oxygen entering his lungs.

“Benji, that’s…” Ethan started, tragic expression from earlier back at threefold strength, “You…you’re not wrong.”

Benji’s ears were ringing. The ‘but’ waiting after Ethan’s words hung like a guillotine over their heads.

“But there are rules. And reasons. Up, up there,” Ethan gestured weakly upwards to the mysterious realm from whence he came, “And…it’s just not done. Cupids can’t be with humans.”

“When you say ‘be’…I mean, can we still be friends? Because I love you—as a friend!” Benji tried to roll over Those Three Words with more words, but they were already out there, planted and growing, “And you seem like you’re going to bolt, I know the expression, I’ve worn it myself. But it would break my heart if you left. Please, it would.”

“Oh, Benji, I can’t break your heart,” Ethan was getting overwrought, muscles clenching in his shoulders and hands trembling, “I just can’t.”

“Then stay! Can’t you stay? Please, I don’t need a romance, I have a family and friends, my life is happy and whole…” Ethan just looked even paler at that, and Benji kept trying, reaching for threads that pulled from his hands as soon as he grabbed hold. “Or, or you can find me some human to love if you have to, I don’t know, we can make it work! You can keep doing what you’ve been doing, cupid-ing things up all over the place, and just…I’ll be last on your list.”

“Oh, Benji, don’t you see,” the panic in Ethan’s eyes shone, electric, “I love it here. I love Earth, I love your food with the artificial dyes and your clothes that don’t make sense and the way every single person has a whole universe inside them and sometimes if you spend enough time with them they’ll start to share their galaxies with you. I love _you_ —”

It was like those last words were ripped from Ethan, bloodied pliers dragging them out with shards of bone and flesh.

Then, his eyes began to flash around the room, seeing something that Benji couldn’t. An electric sizzle crept through the air and Ethan grabbed Benji by the shoulders. “I’ll be back,” he promised in a harsh whisper, “don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

And then he was gone. No flash of light, no bang, just gone—the faintest trace of incense hanging where he’d stood the only trace of his presence.

Benji was distraught the whole next day. Jane couldn’t do anything to comfort him and he could barely even bring himself to explain to her what had happened.

The hours passed and Benji had himself convinced by sunset that Ethan would never return, no matter his promises.

When a chipper knock on the apartment door reverberated through the living room, Benji almost ignored it. But Jane had gone out to retrieve Ilsa, promising to return with break-up food and rental DVDs, so he didn’t have much choice but to answer it.

He opened the door to find Ethan. Standing there. His hair was windblown and his shirt was on backwards, the tag sticking awkwardly up against this neck. He looked a mess, and also like the best thing Benji had ever laid eyes on.

“You’re here!” Benji shouted, excitement overcoming good sense.

“Yes!” Ethan agreed.

“You…knocked?” Benji realized.

“Yes,” Ethan nodded, “It was strange. But I like the sound the wood made. I think I could come to enjoy using doors.”

“Um…” Benji watched Ethan inspect the wood grain like it was a piece of art. “Why didn’t you just zap yourself in, like you always do?”

“Oh, because I’m human now,” Ethan announced, mild as a summer’s day. “May I come in?”

“Of course…” Benji stepped back automatically, “Wait, you’re _what_?”

Ethan took one step forward and walked squarely into the doorframe.

“Ouch,” he said, several seconds later as he was sitting on his behind on the ground, clutching his bonked nose in surprise.

Benji winced and bent to help Ethan stagger back to his feet. “Yikes. Uh. Welcome to the material realm, I guess?”

“What a welcome,” Ethan groused and laughter bubbled up in Benji’s chest, laughter that five minutes earlier he’d have sworn would never come again.

“Listen, Ethan what do you _mean_ you’re human?”

“Human, like, I can smash my face,” Ethan pointed to his face, as if this weren’t already vividly clear, “and human like I had to buy clothes. With money. And drag them onto my corporeal flesh.” They both looked down at said corporeal flesh.

“You look the same to me…feel the same, too,” Benji said, carefully squeezing Ethan’s shoulder. Warm and strong, like he had been since day one.

Ethan smiled. “I’m glad. That was the goal. This was the form I had when I fell for you, so it’s what I choose to keep. Forever.”

“You…” Benji couldn’t wrap his head around what Ethan was saying. Ethan seemed to understand. He reached out, taking both of Benji’s hands in his.

“I’m human,” he repeated, eyes glowing but not with magic, “For you. And not just for you—it’s for me, it’s what I want. It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time, I just didn’t know that was the name I needed to put to the feeling. I want to be part of humanity, not just observe it or help it along.”

“Wow.” Benji checked to make sure his mouth wasn’t hanging open. “That’s…so you are a totally, one hundred percent, human person? With aches and pains and taxes to pay and mortality to contend with?”

Ethan nodded happily, “And a life to lead and goals to achieve and…love to share.”

“Wow,” Benji repeated, the simple word orders of magnitude too small to capture what he was feeling.

“So…” Ethan sidled a little closer, “Would it be alright if I kissed you now? I’ve never kissed anyone before, so I’m not sure I’ll do it right.”

“Wait, you’ve never kissed anyone before?” Benji goggled at him, “You’re Cupid! Or you _were_ a cupid, whatever.”

“So?” Ethan shrugged, “Cupids get other people to do the kissing, they don’t do it themselves.”

“There’s a logic to that,” Benji admitted.

“…Is that a yes?”

“Oh, fuck yes,” Benji shook himself, “I mean…well, I mean what I said! Let’s do this.”

Despite his passion, Benji had plans to be gentle and tender for Ethan’s first kiss ( _wow_ ) but Ethan apparently had other ideas. He grabbed Benji by the shirtfront and reeled him in with a strength that made Benji wonder if he’d held on to any supernatural gifts in his transformation.

Ethan tasted like stardust and green apple candy and the future; it was dizzying and frantic and like coming home in the middle of winter and finally getting to shake the fresh fallen snow from your shoulders. Benji didn’t know a kiss could feel like so much.

They broke apart with a startled “oops!” when the unlocked door swung inwards as Jane arrived home with llsa on one arm and a pizza box on the other.

“Oh!” Jane paused in the doorway to take in the scene, “So, the break up’s off? Great!”

“Congrats!” Ilsa said, looking bemused, “ _She’s the Man_ and _Stick It_ are all for us, then.”

“Wait, did we break up?” Ethan asked, turning to Benji with a worried wrinkle to his brow.

“Sort of…” Benji shuffled his feet, “I mean, when you left, I didn’t know if you’d be able to come back. I thought you might be getting smited, or smote, or whatever the right verb tense is for being blasted out of existence by powers I don’t understand.”

“Oh, Benji, I’m so sorry,” Ethan cradled his face, “I didn’t mean to scare you. And it’s not so bad as that—cupids cannot love humans, but that’s why there’s Clause B4.”

“…Excuse me?”

“The break-in-case-of-love clause,” Ethan explained, like the law of angels was a normal topic of conversation, “it’s not like the folks upstairs want to punish love. It’s what powers the universe! But. You can’t just have beings like me—or, well, like I was—blundering into human lives and times. So, there’s a route to humanity. Lots of paperwork, some vaccinations, you have to get naturalized at the sky/earth border, it’s a whole thing. But it’s all done, and I’m here!”

“Uh…” Benji gaped at Ethan.

“Hmm,” Jane echoed the confusion from over Ethan’s shoulder.

Ilsa, being highly sensible, just patted Jane’s waist and urged her back towards the kitchen. “Let’s drop off this food and leave these two lovebirds to figure things out.”

Jane tossed a thumbs up in Benji’s direction before leaving him to sort out his ex-cupid/best friend/new boyfriend.

“Before we get back to the kissing thing—and _wow_ , do I want to go back to the kissing thing again and again—should we probably deal with some practicalities?” Benji pointed out, a little regretfully. “You have to figure out human things. Eating, sleeping—you’ll have to get a job!”

“I know!” Ethan enthused, “Isn’t it great?”

“Glad that late stage capitalism hasn’t dampened your spirits.”

“I could sell flowers,” Ethan mused dreamily, “or work in a coffee shop or juggle pears or provide marriage counseling.”

“You’d need a degree for that last one.”

“Oh, you’re right—I could go to school!” Ethan’s eyes went wide with the possibilities. “I need a place to live first. But no matter what…I want to stay with you. In whatever way you’ll have me.”

“Jeez, Ethan,” Benji pulled him in for a hug, mostly so Ethan didn’t see his eyes welling up with tears, “Of course, I’ll have you, in all the ways. And of course, you’ll live _here_. With me. You practically lived here anyway.”

“Ok.” Benji could feel Ethan smiling into his shoulder, wide and goofy and carefree.

“I’ve just got one question, one last thing about the whole…cupid thing.”

Benji stepped back so he could meet Ethan’s eye. A nervous shadow flitted across Ethan’s features as Benji geared up to ask, “Were you just not trying to find me love, or wasn’t there anyone out there for me?”

“Oh, I’m sure there were a _ton_ of people out there, Benji!” Ethan assured him immediately, “But I knew almost from the moment I met you that I didn’t want to share you so…” Ethan glanced downwards, guilt tracing over his face in unfamiliar lines, “I sort of…turned off my radar.”

“Your…love-radar?” Benji struggled to comprehend.

“Yeah, sort of! I just dialed it down to zero. For you. Because, I figured, if I couldn’t _see_ your potential matches, then I wasn’t lying about anything! If I could still see them and I didn’t try and help guide you together, _that_ would be lying.”

“Hmm. Have you ever heard about lying by omission?” Benji crossed his arms.

“Um,” Ethan chewed his lip, “Now that I’m a human, and an American human at that, can I take the fifth?”

“You know what,” Benji rolled his eyes, slinging an arm around Ethan’s shoulders, “I’m just so relieved that you’re not incinerated and thrilled that you love me back that I’m not even gonna hold that shady behavior against you.”

“Love you back?” Ethan repeated, ignoring everything else, “Does that mean…you love me?”

“Well, yeah,” Benji was frozen like a raccoon caught with his little thieving hands in the dumpster, “Um, kinda thought I’d already broken that ice.”

“I guess you did,” Ethan said, a little shell-shocked, “but it was rushed and had an ‘as a friend’ qualifier so…”

“Oh, so it did,” Benji recalled, “in that case…. Ethan.” Benji slid his hand down Ethan’s arm, reveling in the skin and muscle and mortality of it all, “I love you. I love you, as a friend and as family and as my new delightful, disastrous ex-cherub boyfriend.”

“I love you, too,” Ethan replied eagerly, barely getting the words out before he was kissing Benji again.

“Hey,” Jane stuck her head around the corner, half-shouting, “this pizza’s getting cold and I’m hungry, so do you waive your rights or—”

“I do _not_ waive any pizza rights,” Benji declared, peeling himself away from the second most world-rocking kiss of his life, “and neither does Ethan, he needs human food now.”

“As opposed to…what kind of food?” Ilsa asked, peeking around Jane.

“Never mind,” Benji waved the inquiry away with a breezy hand, “let’s just eat.”

In a private aside to Ethan, Benji murmured, “Welcome to humanity, love.”

Ethan grinned back, bumping their shoulders together before entwining their fingers, “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! This might be my fave thing I wrote for this week.  
> Also, please send good vibes my way as a I struggle to finish a fic for tomorrow's theme *crosses fingers*
> 
> thanks so much for reading, and if you have a moment, I always adore hearing folks' thoughts & feelings about the story <3


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